It’s Great to Write During a Storm

You’ve probably heard people say “I’m writing up a storm.” Well, I’m writing during a storm, a snow storm to be clear.

The snow has been falling steadily for several hours. The kids were let out of school early. This is exactly the kind of day that I designed my lifestyle to accommodate a few years ago. I want to be as present as possible for the storms in my kids’ childhood rather than focused so much on my own.

There’s a pretty good chance that you’re writing during a storm too. The storm in your life might not be so obvious. Maybe, you’re living through a storm in your financial life, your career, your relationship, or health or confusion about where your life is headed. Maybe every area of your life feels like you’re living through a storm.

What a perfect time to be a writer! Perhaps, writers are more aptly seen as chroniclers of the storms of life. Writing about sunny and clear days means so much more when we’ve experienced the dark clouds and thundering noise of storms approaching, beating upon us and retreating. There are cycles in nature and cycles in our days, and in our writing.

When everything seems to be going against us and the problems we have seem like they will be with us forever, life can feel small. However, look at what is happening in the world around us. For any of us born at this time in human history changes are coming at us with unprecedented speed. Some good, some not so good. Nice to see a certain kind of victory with millions of people standing up to SOPA.

There may have been thousands of year when not much really changed in how people lived and died, but that has all changed in the last century and much more change is on the horizon. We live in a time of storms. With climate change, the outer storms are likely to become more unpredictable. I believe we need personal practices to help us adjust to the intensity of the world we’re in, and writing is a very powerful tool for many of us.

I’m very fortunate to be spending my day in a cozy home with a roaring fireplace and cocoa on the stove, spending the day with my kids riding out today’s storm. This outer storm gives me a respite from the inner storms that don’t pass as quickly as the natural ones. Being in a storm makes me feel more alive, how about you?